In the United States, we throw away 18 billion disposable diapers per year at a cost of 15 to 35 cents a piece (diaper services only charge 7 to 20 cents per diaper). (28)

In the United States, we throw away the same amount of trash per person as we did in 1910 (a lot of coal ash was produced from heating homes). (28)

In 1990, cities in California paid over $1 billion to get rid of their trash. Some cities have resorted to shipping their waste hundreds of miles away. Developing countries are being contracted as dumping grounds for U.S. trash. (26)

United States waste disposal is expected to cost $100 billion by the year 2000. (21)

Americans represent only 5% of the world's population, but generate 30% of the world's garbage. (59)

In the United States, we throw away enough garbage per day to fill 63,000 garbage trucks that hold 7-14 tons of trash. On an annual basis, we fill up enough garbage trucks to form a line that would stretch from earth halfway to the moon. (28)

Estimates indicate that commercial and recreational boats dump over 14 billion pounds of trash into our seas each year. (2)

In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage. If you add it up, this means that a 150 pound adult will leave a legacy of 90,000 pounds of trash for his or her children. (21)

For every $1,000 of fast food sales, 200 pounds of trash is created. (51)

Americans make more than twice as much trash per person as people of other countries such as Japan and Germany. (51)

Of the garbage Americans throw out, half could be recycled. That's enough to fill a football stadium from top to bottom every day. (26)

Every year, the U.S. generates about 450 million cubic yards of trash - enough to bury 26,000 football fields in a layer of garbage ten feet deep. (39)

In Perkasie, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, residents buy specially marked garbage bags from the city at $1.00 for a 20-pound bag and $1.75 for a 40-pound bag. The charge cut residential waste nearly in half in 1988, the first year of the program. (34)

Recycling generates on an average one job for every 465 tons of materials handled each year. In other words, Americans generate around 200 million tons of municipal solid waste each year making 43,000 recycling jobs. (66)